Hacking

Definition of hacking

(Computers) To program (a computer) for pleasure or

compulsively; especially, to try to defeat the security

systems and gain unauthorized access to a computer

hacking definition The computer ethicist Duncan Langford views hacking as an emotive term. He states that back in the 1960s and 1970s hacking was used to describe an individual working with computers who was technically gifted. In these infant times for computing there was perceived to be no implication that someone known as a computer hacker would act illegally. However, the social and computing environment has greatly changed since, and as tends to be with language, the use of the term hacker Ð''expanded and its definition broadened'.

Langford (1995) argues that despite historical claims his definition of hacking is

Ð''obtaining and exploiting unofficial access to a computer system'

In one sense it's silly to argue about the ``true'' meaning of a word. A word means whatever people use it to mean. I am not the Academie FranÐ"§aise; I can't force Newsweek to use the word ``hacker'' according to my official definition.

Still, understanding the etymological history of the word ``hacker'' may help in understanding the current social situation.

The concept of hacking entered the computer culture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1960s. Popular opinion at MIT posited that there are two kinds of students, tools and hackers. A ``tool'' is someone who attends class regularly, is always to be found in the library when no class is meeting, and gets straight As. A ``hacker'' is the opposite: someone who never goes to class, who in fact sleeps all day, and who spends the night pursuing recreational activities rather than studying. There was thought to be no middle ground.

What does this have to do with computers? Originally, nothing. But there are standards for success as a hacker, just as grades form a standard for success as a tool. The true hacker can't just sit around all night; he must pursue some hobby with dedication and flair. It can be telephones, or railroads (model, real, or both), or science